County urged to join border-related groups
Former state senator: ‘We can’t afford to be irrelevant’
The Yuma County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation Monday from Russ Jones, former state senator from Yuma, who remains active in regional affairs, including two border-related organizations he thinks the county should join.
Jones said he’s been a longtime member of both the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the Border Trade Alliance, and the board should consider getting memberships in both, to stay up to date on changing policies and conditions and trading patterns along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I think it’s extremely important Yuma County be engaged and not just inward-looking,” he said. “If we’re not at the table in Washington, if we’re not at the table in Phoenix, you’re not going to be considered, and you’re going to be irrelevant. And we can’t afford to be irrelevant,” he said.
Jones owns a large crossborder transportation business with locations in Arizona, California and Texas, He was first appointed to the board of the Arizona-Mexico Commission in the 1970s, during the era of governors Jack Williams, Raul Castro and Bruce Babbitt, and has been on it ever since. He said the commission’s public-private structure is unique, with the governor chairing the group’s board and a private-sector employee as president, and a private and public sector co-chair for each committee.
Jones said that under current Gov. Doug Ducey the group has become more diverse. “The board has a distinctly more rural representation than it had on it before, from Douglas and Nogales, as well as the Tucson area,” he said.
Besides holding one conference each year in both Arizona and Sonora, the commission also reaches further south and west, into Baja California, Jalisco and Sinaloa.
At the two annual meetings, leaders from the top echelons of
business and government gather for committees on topics, then meet in a plenary. “There’s an incredible amount of good information that you get when you become members, as we hope you would. We always have a pretty good turnout from Yuma. Our biggest challenge sometimes is getting enough people there to get to all the different committees because it’s so much good material,” he said.
Jones said he was one of the founding members of the Border Trade Alliance from 1986, when it was formed in San Diego to oppose a duty being charged on American goods shipped over the border to be assembled and brought back to the U.S.
Since then the BTA, which includes governments and organizations along the entire international border, has presented to Congress and the United States Trade Representative about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and holds four conferences a year.
He said one important message the alliance is trying to deliver is the benefit the U.S. is getting from NAFTA, regardless of a trade deficit of more than $50 billion being cited by the trade deal’s opposition. Jones said trade between the U.S. and Mexico is approaching $1 trillion a year, rendering that deficit relatively insignificant, and also not accounting for foreign investment in the U.S.
“When you begin looking at the bigger picture and delving down into the numbers, it’s obvious that trade through NAFTA has been very good for the United States, and particularly good for the Southwest,” he said.
Private and public entities now can buy memberships to the alliance, and those who pay at least $5,000 a year get a seat on the board.
County Board Chairman Tony Reyes said the supervisors will address the question of membership in the two groups at an upcoming meeting, adding, “The key to this is if we’re going to become a member, we have to become an active member. Not just pay the fees and dues and say that we’re a member of the BTA or the commission.”
At the Monday meeting, the board voted 5-0 to approve:
• Four special use permits for McFarland Solar LLC, which wants to expand a power generating facility north of Dateland that will soon be under construction.
The 1,546 acres covered by these permits are just to the east of three properties totaling 1,760 acres, for which the McFarland obtained special use permits late last year. The projected total output for all seven parcels at buildout is 520 megawatts, enough to power 90,000 homes,
McFarland and the company which will operate the solar panels, Sustainable Energy Group, AKA sPower, applied for the seven permits separately instead of submitting just one or two because they felt it would make it easier to add more phases to the project as demand grows, county staff said.
The land is in an area about 10 miles north of Dateland where other solar facilities are already operating or planned. Construction is expected to begin next year.
• A $1.1 million contract with DPE Construction of Yuma to install storm drains along North Frontage Road between Fortuna Road and Foothills Boulevard.
• Rezoning of a 10-acre parcel at 2526 E. County 15 1/2 Street owned by Dania Corral from Rural Area-10 acre minimum to Suburban Site Built-2 acre minimum.
• Rezoning of a 10-acre property near Avenue 4 1/2 E and County 12 3/4 Street owned by Clayton Revocable Trust from Rural Area-10 acre minimum to Suburban Site Built-2 acre minimum.
• Amendments to county personnel rules on social media use and paid time off.